The Eastern Beauty

[LordLuck]

The seller, a rather thin man with sunburnt features, looked quite pleased to see a customer coming to his stall. He had some more sorts of jellies around, but also grain and pistaccios and other sorts of things that could earn a merchant quite some coin back on the lands her Master had come from... or where she had. Down the south, beyond the great sands, sometimes merchants would trade these things by ivory and pelts and peppers that grew widly around the settlements of her people.

"...Just three coins for a bushel!", he smiled, taking up one of the neatly packed sweets and letting her take a look. His accent was queer. This man was not from the holy land itself, but from a courty further to the north, while the land was still hot. Some said of cold lands where wind would blow to make you shiver, where there was so cold days that they burned like the searing sun. There were still many people on the streets. As the day grew hotter, those would start gathering under roofs and inside taverns and homes to avoid the worse of the heat.

There were fish-sellers still arguing the day's catch - the best fish had already been collected by the early morning - the wise sellers and buyers would go to the wharves down the port to check on the fishermen once they got back from the night sailing. There were many crusades on Acre, warriors garbed into long tabards and chain armours, hauberks and top helms. Most have coloful clothes over the steel, but many also wore crosses on their clothes - be it back or white or red.

And there was one such knight, dressed in black and with the sign of a red cross upon the chest, that looked down on her with a strange stare. He was upon his horse's back, reclined foward, his eyes had been following Sadaa for quite some time, his presence unnerving.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

Hm. She rubbed her chin with her free hand. That would be a good deal - if she was trying to feed an army. As it was, she just wanted to give the children sweets.

“Not quite that many, but half?” She smiled at him readily. Before, she had a hard time smiling. She felt that outside of Adi’s home, she was suspect to nasty words and looks. For a time, she was. Until people got used to her. She was still what you might call “shy” around new people. Largely, she wanted to wait to see how people would react to her before she reacted to them.

His accent was strange, but it sounded nothing close to that of the men who had taken her from her home. Besides, he reacted to her as if there was nothing strange about her dark skin, and this made her feel a bit better. The knights were so common in this part of the world that Sadaa normally would have given him little to no mind. However, it was his long un-nerving staring that would cause her to look up. There was something in his eyes, even from this distance that she could tell was unkind. It made it easier for her to tarry longer at the merchant’s shop.

Truly, she needed nothing else, but she trusted the cold feeling on the back of her neck and would not leave so easily. She could wait it out - perhaps wait for something to distract the knight, and slip down an alley into the secret ways that she had learned. “Those pistachios - how much are they?” They were a special treat of hers - right with almonds. Sometimes, when Isaac was feeling particularly kind, he would give her a few handfuls, roasted well and sprinkled with large grains of salt that were particular to his people.

 

[LordLuck]

"That makes a coin and a half." The merchant spoke up as he already turned around to take as many as she had wanted to fill a small bowl and cover it with a ceramic piece. The knight kept staring at her. Actually, he moved towards the door of a nearby inn. It was a small building with a covering of mortar and painted white like most of those sort of houses. He was adjusting his horse to a pole as he jumped off to the ground besides it, yet she could feel his dissimulated glare. It washed against her rear, around her lovely curves. It was a sight she had been subject to through many times - from the times when Isaac had guests, to how Drago's sellswords looked upon her.

"Hmm... A golden coin for a handful. A large handful." The northerner took up a large spoon to which he shoved into the pistacchios. Those were delicious, but way more expensive that many, many other sorts of spices and grain. The turkish man scratched his forehead and then run a hand over his mustache. "You are quite pretty. You aren't from here, are you, woman?" It was evident that the trader wasn't from the region either, his accent clear despite his words being quite understandable.

The knight walked into the Inn - the house that stood right nextdoor considering the trader's stall and shop. A boy, naked but for a loincloth, run around with a stick, playing with a dog. The sun was growing warmer, and most bystanders got inside, the walkers and riders hurrying on their ways to get under refreshing shadow. The stall had a little covering, but it was not enough to steer off the heat of midday in ancient Canaan.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

She wrinkled her nose. “Mm, that’s too much,” and her voice had a tone of finality. She wasn’t going to try and barter with him. She knew that pistachios were expensive, and that he had to make his living. But still, as she eyed them with just a bit of regret, she formed her resolve to not buy them.

The eyes of the knight had left her, but she still did not feel entirely comfortable. Why had she left the home alone? Normally she had no problem with it - it was expected for slaves to run the errands alone. But when she was young, she never went to market alone. Men were dangerous - and now as a slave, bereft of her virginity, it would be nothing for a man to use her and cast her away. Fearfully, her dark brown eyes continued to scan the vendor’s wares. The sun was rapidly rising - she knew she was wasting time. Maybe Drago would be looking for her?

Maybe. Hopefully.

At the merchant’s question, as if shaken from a dream, she blinked, and smiled at him. “No...I am from a land far from here.” She would not have to say more. The poor state of her dress and how she walked would mark her as a slave as readily as a collar or a brand. But, he seemed to be kind - would she be able to tell him her fears, or would it be better to just wait?

She looked down the road. It was beginning to clear because of the heat of the day, but it was still some distance to Drago’s. If she waited longer, she might out wait the knight, but the streets would be near empty. What was she to do?

 

[LordLuck]

The merchant nodded. "Very well. Just the sweets, then.", he said with a smile, taking his time to prepare the little bowl for her to take away. Her hands were already a little heavy with the many things she had acquired to bring Dragon and his men and children a healthy lunch and dinner soon enough.

"...Maura!", a voice suddenly spoken aloud on the street attracted some gazes from her to a man. The knight that had been staring lecherously at her had come to his horse once more, but it wasn't him who had spoken. Down the street, with his bright white and brown clothes, stood one of the men that Dragon had used as bodyguards and keepers to his goods. A bald man, lean and slender, and not too tall at all.

Phokos was his name. A greek byzantine. He looked at her with a hand on his sword belt, one eye staring at her and another looking for the knight dressed in black who had been with eyes glued on her ass for the longer part of the time she spent on the tent.

"Come. Master wants you back.", he growled as he walked towards her, the knight suddenly minding his own business. A lone slave was a lovely and quick fuck, but one guarded by an armed warrior was another sort of sport entirely - one that the man seemed not to wish to try.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

The gods must have heard her quick prayer.

Trying hard to stop the absolute relief on her face, she nodded her head to the merchant. “Many thanks for your kindness,” and she bowed a little as well. She hoped that he knew what she meant. It would have been quite easy for him to have turned her away, or have been rude to her. But no - he had asked her questions, and had given her somewhere safe to be. She handed him an extra coin as well. It was not much, true, but his kindness was not un-noted. She would make sure to tell Drago as well.

“My apologies for my delay,” and she lowered her head in front of Phokos. She was unsure about this man, but recognized him as one that was in Drago’s employ. Again, she would not tell him right away that she felt threatened. Moving to walk by his side, she let out a long sigh. “I am grateful that you came for me,” she said after a long while, not sure what else she should say. She wondered if Drago missed her. As the pair continued to walk, she looked up at the sky. The sun had moved quite a bit; she must have been much longer than she had originally thought. No wonder he had come for her. But still, it was good luck. It meant that someone was looking for her.